On An Overgrown Path

Why is music called the divine art, while all other arts are not so called? We may certainly see God in all arts and in all sciences, but in music alone we see God free from all forms and thoughts. In every other art there is idolatory. Every thought, every word has its form. Sound alone is free from form. Every word of poetry forms a picture in our mind. Sound alone does not make any object appear. Those words are from The Mysticism of Sound and Music by founder of The Sufi Order in the West and musician  Hazrat Inayat Khan (1882-1927). He is one of those figures often associated with "supermarket spirituality", but there is much in his book for those prepared to accept that science does not hold every answer. Hazrat Inayat Khan teachings revolve around the centrality of vibrations - "Spirit descends into matter by the law of vibrations, and matter may also ascend toward the spirit", which connect with recent paths about al-Kindī , amplification , kinetic art ,

Today’s opening ceremony for the 2012 London Olympics celebrates Britain’s ‘green and pleasant’ land, and the pageant, will, to quote the event’s artistic director Danny Boyle , create “a picture of ourselves as a nation”. Prominent among the music accompanying the ceremony is Parry’s inspired setting of William Blake, which includes the famous lines ‘Till we have built Jerusalem, In England’s green and pleasant land’. Over the years Parry's Jerusalem has become associated with what in 1930s France was known as “ethnic nationalism” , and tonight’s event with its village green, maypoles and last night of the Proms tableau seems set to perpetuate that association. But there is a delicious irony in the choice of Olympic anthem. Because Jerusalem , far from being the product of ethnic nationalism, started life as a rallying cry for a spiritual movement formed, to quote its founder, to appeal "to the whole of humanity... Hindus, Mohammedans, Buddhists... " And that is only t

Graphic is from On An Overgrown Path traffic log - left click to enlarge. Another attempt to nail classical music's image problem here . Also on Facebook and Twitter . Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

This satellite photo shows the Fukushima 1 Nuclear Power Plant which suffered catastrophic failure after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. T he six reactors at Fukushima were designed by General Electric (GE), and a 2011 New York Times report was headlined  "Experts had long criticized potential weakness in design of stricken reactor", and went on to report " GE began making the Mark 1 boiling-water reactors in the 1960s, marketing them as cheaper and easier to build — in part because they used a comparatively smaller and less expensive containment structure". A recent study by Stanford University suggests up to 1300 deaths and another 2900 cancer related illnesses will result from the Fukushima disaster. On Sunday July 29th the Aldeburgh World Orchestra with conductor Mark Elder performs at the BBC Proms . This newly formed orchestra brings together one hundred and twenty-four top young musicians from around the world as part of the Cultural Olympiad. A

No explanation needed . Also on Facebook and Twitter . Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Recent paths converge in this  Times-Picayune  story  about the etiquette of social media. The New Orleans report was drawn to my attention by reader Jody Walker, and I was particularly struck by Jody's accompanying email in which he wrote "...I might share a more optimistic view on social media than your own in some aspects (which makes your writing on the subject that more compelling to me)..." Which is a refreshingly different outlook to other social media users who believe personal abuse can change people's views - a belief that led the established church to exterminate thousands of perceived heretics in the Albigensian Crusade and Spanish Inquisition . Social media compulsives would do well to remember that the word 'heretic' comes from the Greek for ‘ thinking for yourself ’, as was noted in my post about Jordi Savall's newly released  Jeanne d’Arc – Batailles & Prisons . Also on Facebook and Twitter . Any copyrighted material on these pag

But the storm of cries over the city reassured me. It made the single human voice, particularly the one inside one’s head, sound petty and unimportant. Meanwhile, the universal, stereophonic sound, bouncing from one side of the valley to the other, constricted space. It made the towering escarpments that surrounded the city seem to loom and drape, as if they had picked up and advanced a little bit during the day while the citizens napped and chewed their qat . That evocation of the Muslim call to prayer by the muezzin comes from a new book by Theo Padnos . It introduces a post which both celebrates the start of Ramadan and offers an alternative to Big Music's upcoming multicultural media fest at the BBC Proms . I recently described Jordi Savall and Montserrat Figueras’ new Jeanne d’Arc – Batailles & Prisons as being more audio verité than music CD , and that description also applies to the disc seen above. Almuédano is an atmospheric portrayal of the adhān, the call to pr

"Their style is early cunnilingual, late patricidal, lunchtime in the Everglades, Black Forest blood sausage on electrified bread, Jean Genet up a totem pole, artists at the barricades, Edgar Allan Poe drowning in his birdbath, Massacre of the Innocents, tarantella of the satyrs, L.A. pagans drawing down the moon... Jim Morrison [seen above] is an electrifying combination of angel in grace and dog in heat... The Doors are musical carnivores in a land of musical vegetarians... The Doors scream into the darkened auditorium what all of us in the underground are whispering more softly in our hearts: We want the world and we want it... NOW!" Young music critic of the year contender Andrew Mellor would do well to study that purple prose by Tom Robbins , which describes a 1967 Doors concert in Seattle. Robbins was writing for the underground paper Helix , and his plea of “We want the world and we want it… NOW!" chimes with Mellor’s recent musings in the New Statesman about cl

Demonstrating solidarity with the proletariat by gently nibbling the hand that feeds you is the new fashion among classical music's demimonde. Which means that in the New Statesman BBC Radio 3 website contributor Andrew Mellor rails against the advertisements for private schools in the BBC Proms programmes that help pay the spectacular salaries of BBC Radio 3 contributors . Others prefer to get high on the music . Today's audio contribution to our colour of music thread comes from reader Jihong Park , and in it his teacher Judith Burganger plays Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto conducted by Dean Dixon. More on this path in another reader led post - 'Dean Dixon - I owe him a huge debt' . Also on Facebook and Twitter . Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and errors

Deep Purple led by Jon Lord are seen in the photo with Sir Malcolm Arnold . The occasion was a 1969 Albert Hall concert comprising the composer's Sixth Symphony, a solo set by the band and the premiere of Jon Lord's Concerto for Group and Orchestra, with Sir Malcolm conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. When the classical musicians failed to give their rock colleagues the respect they deserved, Sir Malcolm let rip with the blast quoted in my headline. Jon Lord died today age 71 . The full story of Sir Malcolm and the rock stars is here . Also on Facebook and Twitter . Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Are classical music audiences racist? Candace Allen thinks so based on an unfortunate incident at London's Barbican, and so do others . Here are Ms Allen's words from a recent Evening Standard interview to promote her new book Soul Music : “There are people for whom [classical music] is still very much about class, and their class only, and they can be very rough, extremely snobbish and yes, racist”, and she then says that black people are made to feel unwelcome in some classical venues. Now, On An Overgrown Path has been drawing attention to racism for some time with stories such as ' I don't believe in Negro symphony conductors ' and ' Did BBC derail career of black conductor '. And yes, ethnic minorities are under-represented in classical music audiences, and we certainly need to change that. But there is a big difference between being ethnically unrepresentative and being racist. In my experience racism, in either overt or nuanced forms, is not a mat

I really think that all through history most of the bad stuff quietly eliminates itself in its particular form from generation to generation. It may be replaced by other bad stuff, but the fashion disappears. Whereas the good stuff renews itself. Anything that was good in the writing of Sophocles some good director will discover again and reproduce. But the bad stuff – when it’s forgotten, it’s gone for ever. I can’t remember all that about Shakespeare and the Bear Pit but I think that at the time people were saying: ‘Isn’t it terrible, Mr Shakespeare is writing all these classics and people are rushing to the Bear Pit’. There will probably never be a final word in the debate about classical music's use of Twitter . But if there is, let it be those wise words from the poet Robert Lax, who is seen above. Social media and Robert Lax are an unlikely pairing, but worthwhile side turnings have emerged on this much overgrown path. The SoundNotion.tv team with guest Drew McManus debated

Quite a bit of heat about Candace Allen’s new book Soul Music: The Pulse and Race of Music . So a little light is needed and hopefully this will be provided by the musician seen above. Because the good news is that John McLaughlin Williams - someone who has first hand experience of the pulse and race of music - will be reviewing the book for On An Overgrown Path . John’s review will appear later in the summer as he is currently heavily involved in producing a new performing edition of Karl Weigl’s Violin Concerto for a recording by other artists. More on Mahler’s forgotten assistant here . Header image grabbed from YouTube video of John conducting Gershwin's Concerto in F with pianist Ludmil Angelov. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot

Arab scholarship played an important part in the European Renaissance, with a major contribution coming from the ninth century polymath al-Kindī whose erudition encompassed philosophy, mathematics, physics and music. Much of al-Kindī's scholarship is enshrined in contemporary sciences such as cryptography ; but one of his more intriguing theses  remains unaccepted, namely that all objects and beings emanate radiations that affect all other beings. Such an idea is difficult for contemporary minds conditioned by post-Enligtennment science to accept, until it is realised that there are scientifically proven examples of the inanimate affecting the sentient; just one example being the remarkable homing instinct of cats which is thought to be the result of electromagnetic radiation . Al-Kindī's thesis may also explain one of my more bizarre theories, namely that CDs with graphically compelling sleeve artwork sound better that those with mediocre graphics - a theory that also expl

Also on Facebook and Twitter . Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

'What perplexed Britten was not his sexuality per se - he never concealed himself in a sham marriage, and sustained a loving relationship with Pears for more than half his life - but his longing for the company of underage males'. Alex Ross in The Rest Is Noise '"The notion at its heart is of innocence v experience," says Kildea. "We tend to say that innocence is the right path and experience is bad. And what Britten plays with here is, what if experience were part of a portal into adulthood? If this is part of a child becoming a man, what value judgment do you place on it?" This is dangerous territory. "You simply can't talk about these things today," says Kildea. "If you're talking about experience, it comes down to pedophilia. Let's not call it child abuse. Let's call it what it is. Rape. And the power imbalance between adults and children. But what if the power imbalance is driven by the child? That is a curious a

I had been living in New York quite a bit, and spending a lot of time with New Yorkers, and wherever I was I was hearing the same – the New York – answers to every question, and I realised that both the questions and answers that I was hearing were New York-based. And I realised that neither the questions nor the answers were the ones I was asking myself but I was surrounded by this language that had the questions and the answers knitted into it. And the only way out was to leave the city. That is the poet Robert Lax explaining why he moved to the Greek island of Patmos in 1961. One of the reasons for my unfashionable dislike of social media in particular and contemporary media in general is that it speaks in a language that has the questions and answers knitted into it – a language geared to generating the approval of ‘followers’ and ‘friends’. It is very rarely that I agree with TV celebrities, but I can only echo Michael Palin’s recent plea that schools should place a renewed focu